Carving the path: FNGLA certification offers county and municipal employees career ladder

When it comes time for
officials at the Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department
to determine whether an employee advances to a higher-paying position, one of the factors they
consider is whether that employee is FNGLA certified, according to Lorena
Guerra-Macias, the Department’s Special Tax District Manager.

In 2010, the Department began requiring more than half of its 78-member workforce to earn FNGLA’s
Certified Landscape Technician (FCLT-Installation) within their first year of
employment, and the results have been quite positive.

“Through the
certification of our employees, the Sports Turf Management and Landscape
Services Division has been able to professionalize the workforce, raise our standards
and ensure that the staff is continuously gaining knowledge through the
continued education classes as to the changes in the industry,” Guerra-Macias
said.

The Division’s
employees, which consist of managers, landscape technician supervisors, auto equipment
supervisors, landscape technicians, and landscape attendants, maintains more than 200
acres across the South Florida county – an area which includes more than 10,000
trees, according to Guerra-Macias.

"The pride that the staff has by having this certification has totally changed the mindset of all of our employees," said Gil Delgado, PROS division chief at Miami-Dade County. "It has improved the end results."

Delgado added that he was able to use FNGLA's certification to overhaul the job title and description of his entry-level crew, taking them their job titles from the more broad "park attendants," whose tasks could include anything from grounds keeping to cleaning park restrooms, to the more horticulture-focused "landscape technician" -- an upgrade that came with around a 10 percent pay increase, according to Delgado.

FCLT certification is
not the final destination for many Miami-Dade employees either, according to
Merry Mott, FNGLA’s director of certifications and career development. “These
certified professionals give back to the industry by serving as exam judges at
FNGLA’s bilingual test site in Davie.”

Miami-Dade County is not
the only Florida agency to encourage its employees to be FNGLA-certified. “More
than 200 employees from counties and cities across the state are currently
FNGLA-certified,” Mott said, adding that the City of Tallahassee also makes
FNGLA certification a requirement for a number of its workforce.